With the extensive growth of the Internet, many people, businesses, and organizations have turned to the Internet for advertising. One form of online advertising commonly known as pay-per-click advertising involves the billing of advertisers for each selection of an advertisement hyperlink. For example, an advertiser typically enters into a pay-per-click agreement with a host of a website. The host then posts an advertisement for the advertiser on the website. The advertisement typically includes a hyperlink that, when selected by visitors to the website, will direct the visitors to another website, which is typically a website operated by the advertiser. In accordance with the pay-per-click agreement between the advertiser and the host, the host bills the advertiser for each selection of the hyperlink.
Many advertisers prefer pay-per-click advertising over other billing arrangements for online advertisements because payment is required only when the advertisement successfully influences users to select a hyperlink in search of more information. With pay-per-click advertising, advertisers reduce their risk, and potentially their costs, by paying only for tangible results produced by posted advertisements.
Many hosts of websites use pay-per-click advertising as a tool to attract potential advertisers. For example, many websites exist that may or may not prove to be an effective host for one or more advertisements of a particular advertiser. The hosts of these websites may be able to attract certain advertisers only by allowing those advertisers to pay for their advertisement on a pay-per-click basis.
However, conventional pay-per-click techniques are not without shortcomings. One significant shortcoming is the traditional reliance upon different websites to obtain and present additional information to visitors requesting the information. When a visitor to a host website selects an advertisement hyperlink, a request for additional information is sent to a server, typically either a server of the host website or a server of the selected hyperlink. In some cases, the request is sent to a third party server. The server identified in the advertisement hyperlink processes the request for additional information and sends it back to the requestor. The additional information redirects the visitor to another website (e.g., the advertiser's website) that contains the additional information.
The practice of requesting and receiving the additional information from a server introduces a delay between the instant when the visitor selected the hyperlink and the instant when the additional information is presented to the visitor. Savvy users of the Internet are typically aware of such delays and may factor foreseeable delays into decisions of whether to select an advertisement hyperlink. Thus, many users of the Internet, especially those with busy schedules and/or relatively slow Internet connections, may choose not to select a particular advertisement hyperlink because of the potential delay in receiving additional information.
Another conventional pay-per-click practice may similarly lead users of the Internet away from selecting advertisement hyperlinks. When a visitor to a host website selects an advertisement hyperlink, the visitor is typically whisked away to another website (e.g., the website of the advertiser). The current web browser window of the visitor may be directed to another website, or a new web browser window may be opened on the computer screen of the visitor. These practices take the visitor away from the host website. If the visitor is not yet finished with the host website, he or she may feel frustration in being directed to another website. Such an experience may influence the visitor toward not selecting advertisement hyperlinks in the future and to have undesirable ill-will toward the host website having the hyperlink.
Both advertisers and the operators of host websites suffer from the conventional pay-per-click practices described above. Advertisers may lose business as visitors to the host websites elect not to select advertisement hyperlinks. Advertisers and the operators of a host website including the hyperlink may also damage their reputation by surprisingly directing visitors away from the host website to a different website. Operators of the host websites also risk losing traffic as visitors are taken away from the host website even if the visitor desires to use the link. These issues may eventually result in a loss of future patronage to both the advertiser and the host website, as well as a decrease in the amount of advertising fees that a host website can command.